Welland teens trash hotel rooms

NIAGARA FALLS - A group of Welland high school students rampaged through a Lundy's Lane motel after a Friday night dance, trashing 22 rooms and leaving a trail of destruction that left some rooms looking as if a bomb had hit them.

The sheer amount of damage - gaping holes in the drywall, entire doors shredded to pieces, sinks ripped from the walls - has Avenue Inn owner David Linqi Liu considering legal action against the motel guests while motel manager Robert Forget is wondering why police apparently did little to stop the carnage.

For their part, police said the matter is a civil issue, not a criminal one.

The trouble began Friday night at about 8 p.m., soon after students from Notre Dame College School started showing up at their rooms, said Forget, who was working at the motel through the night as the rooms were turned upside down.

The Grade 12 students had booked 35 rooms at the motel - about four to each room - so that they'd have a place to party after their school's semiformal dance at the Americana on Lundy's Lane.

Forget said he was told about 8 p.m. by a student that Room 135 was being "demolished," he said.

"By the time I got to the room, it was completely destroyed," he said, adding that he locked the room and started going door-to-door to see if there were more problems.

At 9 p.m., Forget said he started kicking kids off the property, dispatching about 30 students from the motel property.

But the damage didn't stop there.

"We tried to help them out, to have a little fun, and they repay us by destroying our rooms," Forget said, adding the remaining kids were destroying rooms until about 5 a.m.

Forget also said a Niagara Regional Police cruiser drove through the Avenue Inn's parking lot several times during the night.

He said that when he told police of the escalating situation, they told him there was little they could do because it was a civil issue, not a criminal one, and that it was the motel's responsibility to deal with their guests.

"They said it was our problem," Forget said.

One student who was at the motel, but who didn't want to be identified for fear of being targeted by fellow students said she saw the police response.

She echoed what Forget said, that police were told of the situation, but said that it wasn't their issue to deal with.

NRP Staff Sgt. Michael Woods said police treat situations like the Avenue Inn debacle as a civil matter between two parties involved in a contract.

"When you rent a house to that person, and that person causes damage to it, then the resultant trying to get your money back is done as a civil process, whether it's through a landlord tenant board or if it's done through small claims court," Woods said. "It's a similar situation."

Woods also called on the motel owners to be more careful about who they rent to.

"Unfortunately, this happens every year where these motel owners are choosing to rent to these kids," he said. "I would think if they speak to each other at all, that they're fully aware of the problems they're going to have by doing this. There's a certain onus on the renter of the property to take steps to protect his property."

In an e-mail Monday night, Woods said he spoke to the sergeant who took the initial report to police - made on Saturday morning after the guests had left - and that he "had no information on whether anyone had attended the night before."

The Notre Dame student said that a list of students who were staying at the motel was given to the motel's management. She said that only students who were wearing wristbands should've been on the hotel property.

However, the party soon got out of control and that there were ultimately a lot of kids there who had no business being there because they weren't wearing wristbands.

She said that students from several Welland high schools including Notre Dame, Centennial and Eastdale, and Pelham's E.L. Crossley, were at the motel. She said that the party also included kids who had already graduated from Notre Dame.

Also, two people posted pictures of themselves on Facebook, posing in the destroyed Room 135. Under the picture, 31 people indicated they liked the photo.

"That's embarrassing and I feel horrible for what has happened," said the student, who wasn't involved in the vandalism.

On Monday, Forget, Liu, and his son Harry Liu showed a reporter and photographer the extent of the damage, leading the way from room to room.

While some rooms suffered varying levels of moderate to extensive damage, other rooms were scenes of complete carnage. It was clear that whoever was behind the vandalism had their work cut out for them.

There were large holes in the drywall that enabled clear view from the bedroom - through the wall - into the bathroom. In one bathroom, the ceiling tiles along with the ductwork had been pulled down so that they rested on the toilet. Outside the bathroom, the pieces of dozens of broken beer and liquor bottles littered the floor.

In other rooms, discarded condoms had been left on the floor, a short distance away from a stove that had had its glass door smashed. Beer-drenched TVs lay on the floor, near ripped wall paintings. A Holy Bible had even been torn up.

"Disarray - they just turned it upside down," Forget said.

One room stank of vomit, urine, and cigarette smoke. A large yellow stain covered the bed.

"Kids urinating on the bed," Forget remarked.

Harry Liu said his family, originally from Toronto, took over the motel in March and that the business has been challenging at the best of times.

"I just can't imagine that kids would do something like that," Liu said.

The Lius said they have all the names of all the students who stayed in the rooms and that they'll be trying to make contact with them.

"We have their names," Liu said, adding that the financial toll was probably somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000.

A message left with Notre Dame requesting comment wasn't returned Monday night.

An e-mail to Niagara Catholic District School Board Director of Education John Crocco wasn't immediately responded to.